• Call for Posters and Presentations
• Call for Scholarship Applications
• Poster

Call for Posters and Presentations

The ICML workshop portion of the 2009 Reinforcement Learning competition is coming up in one month! Now that competitors have had a chance to try the domains, swim around in the code and test their best algorithms, we'd like to hear about what's happening.

We're soliciting contributions from the reinforcement learning community (including, but not limited to, RLC competitors) who would like to present something at the workshop, either as a poster or a presentation / discussion during the workshop itself.

• WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
  Lots of things, as long as it's interesting! For example:

  • We're interested in your algorithms. What have you tried? What worked well? How did you end up doing so well on Mario? Even if you don't end up winning an event, you may have had a great idea. We'd like to hear about it (and we may even be interested in "negative results," if you have a compelling story about why something that seemed like a good idea didn't pan out).
  • We're interested in your ideas for improving the competition and reinforcement learning in general. We're interested in more than just traditional workshop talks -- if you want to lead a discussion on a particular topic, let us know.
  • We're interested in your experiences with the competition itself. How were the problems? How was the code? Do you think the competition is achieving its goal?
• HOW CAN I PARTICIPATE?
  There are two ways: posters, and presentations in the workshop.

  • A presentation will be allocated a 15-30 minute presentation slot during the course of the workshop. We're planning on a mix of algorithms, discussion, invited talks, and (of course) announcements of the winners.
  • A poster session will be held on Thursday, June 18. This will be held in conjunction with the MSRL (Multi-disciplinary Symposium on Reinforcement Learning).
• WHAT SHOULD I SUBMIT?
  • A 1-6 page document describing what you (or your poster) is going to talk about. This should be long enough to give us a good idea of how your presentation will fit into the overall mix of the workshop.
  • Please indicate your preference for either poster, presentation, or either.
• WHEN AND HOW?
  • We're flexible. Because we anticipate that competitors will continue working until the competition deadline, submissions will be accepted until one week before the workshop, although we STRONGLY encourage you to submit sooner, because workshop time will fill up quickly as decisions are made.
  • PDF only, please.
  • Please send all submissions to rlcomp2009@gmail.com.

Call for Schoarlship Appications

We are pleased to announce the availability of several scholarships to help competitors and prospective workshop attendees come to the workshop. They're designed to be used to help defray the cost of attending the workshop, and can be applied to travel, lodging, food or workshop registration.

• WHAT DOES THE SCHOLARSHIP CONSIST OF?
  Scholarships will be a cash award for between $400 and $800, depending on need.
• WHO CAN APPLY?
  Competitors will be given preference when awarding scholarships, but the scholarships are open to all who wish to attend the workshop.
  You do not need to have won an event in order to apply for or receive a scholarship -- you only need to have participated in good faith, and be interested in attending the workshop.
• HOW CAN I APPLY?
  Send us an application which tells us:

  • Name, institution, contact information, advisor, and stage of education.
  • What your expected travel / food / lodging costs are going to be.
  • What additional financial support you expect to receive for attending the conference / workshop, whether from your advisor or from other scholarships.
  • A brief statement about your involvement with the competition.
• WHEN AND HOW?
  • Applications are due on June 1, 2009.
  • PDF only, please.
  • Please send all submissions to rlcomp2009@gmail.com.

Poster

Please help us raise awareness about the RL Competition. We have prepared a poster, and ask everyone to print a copy and put it up somewhere visible.